Red Hot Chili Peppers Salute Judas Priest, Motorhead + More ’70s Icons on Chill New Song ‘Poster Child’
On April 1, Red Hot Chili Peppers will release their 17-track new album, Unlimited Love. For now, however, fans can hang tight and listen to "Poster Child," the second single from the new record which name-checks a heap of '70s icons, including Judas Priest, Motorhead and Led Zeppelin.
With "Black Summer," the previous single, the Chili Peppers dished out a soothing four-minute offering of light bass lines and delicate chords backed by a shuffling beat before moving into a bit more of an energetic chorus. On "Poster Child," the chill vibes continue with funk-driven passages and choppy, syllabic cadences from singer Anthony Kiedis, whose lyrics are an ode not only to some of the greatest rock artists of the '70s and early '80s (Richard Hell, Adam Ant, Thin Lizzy, Parliament, Billy Idol) but other culturally relevant figures, places and events.
Read the lyrics to "Poster Child" and listen to the new song further down the page.
Unlimited Love will be the 12th album from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and it's the first with guitarist John Frusciante, who rejoined in place of Josh Klinghoffer in 2019, since 2006's double album, Stadium Arcadium.
The release of Unlimited Love will end a six year studio drought stretching back to 2016's The Getaway and it's likely fans will not have to endure another lengthy wait for new material as the band is already working on the successor to this record. "We're gonna put out music by the handful. Literally. Don't be surprised if another wheelbarrow of songs comes your way in the near future. … We have a lot of shit to turn people onto," Kiedis told NME recently.
Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Poster Child" Lyrics (via Genius)
Melle Mel and Richard Hell were dancing at the Taco Bell
When someone heard a rebel yell, I think it was an infidel
Adam Ant and Robert Plant were center of a sycophant
Used to buy Ulysses Grant to record at the Record Plant
Islamabad is on the nod, Havana at the riot squad
And if you want to be a Mod, you'll have to meet me at the quadYou got the best of my loco
I'll take the rest of your showboat
You got the best of my Yoko
I'll take the rest of your low notеParliament's Atomic Dog that hats were filling up a fog
Wе talk about the life and death of everything in analog
The seventies were such a win, singing the Led Zeppelin
Lizzy lookin' mighty thin, the Thompson's had another twin
I thought I won the lottery, the numbers never thought of me
Ramones had a lobotomy, so spin me like a potteryI will be your poster child
You know the world is ours for a little while
And then I will be your poster child tonight, ow
La-da-da-da, bum-bum-budumA funky piece, the Sandinista, me and minor Mona Lisa
Judas Priest has whipped the beast, the mother love was named Teresa
Bubble gum, a cup of soup, dirty dandy nanda loop
A small banana in your hoop, and now I know the band is group
Bernie Mac and Caddyshack were dusty as the bric-a-brac
And if you ask me for the time, I tell you that the preacher's backYou got the best of my loco
I'll take the rest of your showboat
You got the best of my Yoko
I'll take the rest of your low noteSteve Miller and Duran Duran, the Joker dancing in the sand
Van Morrison, the Astral man, the festival of hurricanes
Speak of Chico and the Man, the silence of a certain lamb
MC5 kick out the jam, a poncho full of contraband
Merry Queen was on the scene on every preteen magazine
The Motörhead and mystic queen, I must've needed ValvolineI will be your poster child
You know the world is ours for a little while
And then I will be your poster child tonight
La-da-da-da, bum-bum-budum